Is Centrino brand all that strong?

On Sat, 05 Feb 2005 10:46:01 -0500, Robert Myers
wrote:

If I'm not mistaken, full Centrino is more expensive than
Pentium-M+855 Chipset+OEM-supplied wireless. The OEM is buying the ad
campaign, not the functionality.

The OEM is NOT buying the ad campaign at all, they're getting PAID for
the ad campaign. Intel provides BIG-$$$ for companies to advertise
their laptops as "Centrino Mobile Technology", complete with the Intel
symbol and badda-bing. If you just buy the Pentium-M + chipset but
use a different WiFi chip than you gotta foot the entire marketing
bill to advertise your products. Add in that Intel WiFi chip though
and call it Centrino and Intel will basically cover all of your
marketing costs.

-------------
Tony Hill
hilla underscore 20 at yahoo dot ca

On Sat, 05 Feb 2005 15:24:58 -0500, Tony Hill wrote:

On Sat, 05 Feb 2005 10:28:29 GMT, Never anonymous Bud
wrote:

Using a finger dipped in purple ink, Tony Hill scribed:

No no no! Centrino means that you can use WiFi at the top of Mount
Everest! Dontcha know?!? Geez.. If you've got Centrino than you can
use WiFi ANYWHERE! Just watch the commercials! :

Yeah, in the middle of a park with NOTHING around for hundreds of yards!

That Intel, they're really good at (make up something)...

Marketing?

-------------
Tony Hill
hilla underscore 20 at yahoo dot ca

I am still waiting for Intel or AMD to do something like the Vonage
commercials. you know "People do stupid things" then you insert a guy in a
blue Centrino shirt, or in a green AMD shirt, do something really stupid
with a computer. Or have a big pop up screen, telling the user to right
click, show the user pounding on the left mouse button. Oh don't forget
that catchy tune, that in itself is probably what makes the commercials so
funny. But we all know that who ever did that would probably have the
attorneys knocking on their doors with defamation law suites.

Gnu_Raiz

Tony Hill wrote:
No no no! Centrino means that you can use WiFi at the top of Mount
Everest! Dontcha know?!? Geez.. If you've got Centrino than you can
use WiFi ANYWHERE! Just watch the commercials! :

I think I can recall seeing in fine print on those Intel commercials
that they were saying that there was WiFi at some basestation of
Everest. Of course that had little to do with the images they were
showing on the commercial itself, which really made it clear that these
climbers must've been 10,000 feet up already.

Yousuf Khan

Tony Hill wrote:
Yeah, in the middle of a park with NOTHING around for hundreds of yards!

That Intel, they're really good at (make up something)...


Marketing?

While AMD's marketing department recently had to pull some radio ads
from Belgium or the Netherlands or somewhere like that, because they
were claiming that their NX-bit technology was a substitute for
anti-virus software. Seems Intel gets away with a few things which AMD
gets caught for.

Yousuf Khan

On Sat, 05 Feb 2005 10:46:01 -0500, Robert Myers
wrote:

On Fri, 04 Feb 2005 17:12:32 -0500, George Macdonald
wrote:

On Fri, 04 Feb 2005 08:11:24 -0500, Robert Myers
wrote:


snip


Brands are very, very expensive, but every marketer wants a
recognizable brand, and whether a brand is "recognizable" or not may
depend on how you ask the question. Look at enough notebooks and
notebook ads with the Centrino logo, and the brand becomes
recognizable, if only from the distinctive shape of the logo--that's
why really good graphics designers make so much. To the prospective
buyer, that logo becomes a feature they want to have, even if they
don't know why (cf. Corinthian leather).

Was (fine) Corinthian Leather really all that successful?

Corinthian Leather was successful enough to get a writeup in the Wall
Street Journal, and Chrysler stuck with the ad campaign through many
millions of dollars. I think that campaign was well into the focus
group era. Did it sell cars? Would I be spending time here if I
_really_ knew the answer to questions like that? ;-).

Figures... all Chrysler had going for it by then was err, seats! Focus
group era? Did that correspond with what was known as the "pussification"
of American industry?

Most people
don't know what Centrino is anyway - it's generally perceived as meaning an
Intel CPU... with a possible assocation with long battery life.


But it doesn't matter. It's a feature. The feature, you argue, is
poorly correlated in the minds of potential buyers with actual
benefits, but that doesn't matter if it's a feature people want.

If I'm not mistaken, full Centrino is more expensive than
Pentium-M+855 Chipset+OEM-supplied wireless. The OEM is buying the ad
campaign, not the functionality.

The pricing of non-Centrino Wi-Fi wasn't much different about a year ago...
though I don't bother to look beyond Thinkpads much. Currently, there's
very little competitive offerings that I see; IBM has a very few Thinkpads
with "IBM 11b/g Wireless", which may be Cisco parts(?), in their top end
systems but also in a couple of lower end systems. IOW if you wanted to
avoid Centrino now, it'd be kinda difficult but the price is not much
different, from what I see.

To turn the question around: how much market clout do you think an AMD
logo has?

If you watch F1 or the Tour de France... maybe? How much clout does Lance
have in the U.S.?shrug

Why would an American spend his time riding a bicycle in _France_?
Real men don't ride bicycles, they don't wear shorts like that, they
don't spend time in France or, if forced to do so, don't advertise it,
and they don't use AMD processors.

Uh-huh - "real men" sit around drinking beer, watching steroid-induced
monsters in heavily padded clothing trying to beat each other to death?
They go to the gym 3 times a week but don't ask them to walk two blocks to
get there.:-)

People who ride bicycles, wear
shorts like that, spend time in France, and/or use AMD processors
probably spend their spare time playing weird computer games.

Something about the shorts that I've missed?:-) Ever watch Paris-Roubaix?
Now these are the *real* hard men.

--
Rgds, George Macdonald

On Sun, 06 Feb 2005 01:53:02 -0500, George Macdonald
wrote:

On Sat, 05 Feb 2005 10:46:01 -0500, Robert Myers
wrote:


snip


To turn the question around: how much market clout do you think an AMD
logo has?

If you watch F1 or the Tour de France... maybe? How much clout does Lance
have in the U.S.?shrug

Why would an American spend his time riding a bicycle in _France_?
Real men don't ride bicycles, they don't wear shorts like that, they
don't spend time in France or, if forced to do so, don't advertise it,
and they don't use AMD processors.

Uh-huh - "real men" sit around drinking beer, watching steroid-induced
monsters in heavily padded clothing trying to beat each other to death?
They go to the gym 3 times a week but don't ask them to walk two blocks to
get there.:-)

People who ride bicycles, wear
shorts like that, spend time in France, and/or use AMD processors
probably spend their spare time playing weird computer games.

Something about the shorts that I've missed?:-) Ever watch Paris-Roubaix?
Now these are the *real* hard men.

For my own part, I'm fond of Proust. For whatever it's worth, though,
I think my attempted send-up of why Lance Armstrong isn't that
effective for selling outside AMD's core constituency
(anti-establishment gamers) reflects fairly well the level of
rationality at which people actually make these decisions, which is to
say that it isn't rational at all.

Or, oh well, there probably is some rationality there, but I wouldn't
claim to be smart enough to parse it. Intel's marketing is: buy what
you're familiar with and what you know will work; no expatriate
Americans on bicycles in France for that message. AMD's message is:
the same old, same old isn't always the best--(gasp!) American winning
(gasp!) the Tour de France is exactly on message. AMD really can't
build its brand in quite the same way as Intel...

And at some level, the really important buyers have to understand
that. AMD, for all its accomplishments, is still in the "prove it"
division. Lance Armstrong just the right image for that spot, I
guess; he has to have made believers of the French (other than those
who firmly believe his success is the result of illegal drugs).

But Lance Armstrong has ridden his last or next to last tour? DEC is
no more. IBM is still chugging along (although you may have to review
your choice of laptop).

RM

On Sun, 06 Feb 2005 00:09:46 -0500, Yousuf Khan wrote:

Tony Hill wrote:
No no no! Centrino means that you can use WiFi at the top of Mount
Everest! Dontcha know?!? Geez.. If you've got Centrino than you can
use WiFi ANYWHERE! Just watch the commercials! :

I think I can recall seeing in fine print on those Intel commercials
that they were saying that there was WiFi at some basestation of
Everest.

Wi Fi Internet Cafe Planned for Everest Base Camp:

http://www.network54.com/Forum/threa...eid=1042730350

Of course that had little to do with the images they were
showing on the commercial itself, which really made it clear that these
climbers must've been 10,000 feet up already.

The Everest "base camp" is at 17,500ft. It looks like a nice place for a
vacation. http://www.vashonsd.wednet.edu/everest/dispatch6.htm --- NOT!

--
Keith

On Sun, 06 Feb 2005 01:53:02 -0500, George Macdonald wrote:

On Sat, 05 Feb 2005 10:46:01 -0500, Robert Myers
wrote:

On Fri, 04 Feb 2005 17:12:32 -0500, George Macdonald
wrote:

On Fri, 04 Feb 2005 08:11:24 -0500, Robert Myers
wrote:


snip


Brands are very, very expensive, but every marketer wants a
recognizable brand, and whether a brand is "recognizable" or not may
depend on how you ask the question. Look at enough notebooks and
notebook ads with the Centrino logo, and the brand becomes
recognizable, if only from the distinctive shape of the logo--that's
why really good graphics designers make so much. To the prospective
buyer, that logo becomes a feature they want to have, even if they
don't know why (cf. Corinthian leather).

Was (fine) Corinthian Leather really all that successful?

Corinthian Leather was successful enough to get a writeup in the Wall
Street Journal, and Chrysler stuck with the ad campaign through many
millions of dollars. I think that campaign was well into the focus
group era. Did it sell cars? Would I be spending time here if I
_really_ knew the answer to questions like that? ;-).

Figures... all Chrysler had going for it by then was err, seats! Focus
group era? Did that correspond with what was known as the "pussification"
of American industry?

Did you drive a Chrysler of that era? A new name for the hyde of the
rare Nalga was by far the best thing they had going.

Most people
don't know what Centrino is anyway - it's generally perceived as
meaning an Intel CPU... with a possible assocation with long battery
life.


But it doesn't matter. It's a feature. The feature, you argue, is
poorly correlated in the minds of potential buyers with actual benefits,
but that doesn't matter if it's a feature people want.

If I'm not mistaken, full Centrino is more expensive than Pentium-M+855
Chipset+OEM-supplied wireless. The OEM is buying the ad campaign, not
the functionality.

The pricing of non-Centrino Wi-Fi wasn't much different about a year
ago... though I don't bother to look beyond Thinkpads much. Currently,
there's very little competitive offerings that I see; IBM has a very few
Thinkpads with "IBM 11b/g Wireless", which may be Cisco parts(?),

The drivers for my IBM 11/a/b/g cardbus card have a name on them I've
never heard (and don't remember). I decided to pass on the R50 they were
trying to push on me, so I don't know what the hardware in there is/was.

in
their top end systems but also in a couple of lower end systems. IOW if
you wanted to avoid Centrino now, it'd be kinda difficult but the price
is not much different, from what I see.

The ThinkPads I've looked (a small slice of ones on sale, perhaps) at
weren't Centrinos. They were all Pentium-Ms.

To turn the question around: how much market clout do you think an AMD
logo has?

If you watch F1 or the Tour de France... maybe? How much clout does
Lance have in the U.S.?shrug

Why would an American spend his time riding a bicycle in _France_? Real
men don't ride bicycles, they don't wear shorts like that, they don't
spend time in France or, if forced to do so, don't advertise it, and
they don't use AMD processors.

Uh-huh - "real men" sit around drinking beer, watching steroid-induced
monsters in heavily padded clothing trying to beat each other to death?
They go to the gym 3 times a week but don't ask them to walk two blocks
to get there.:-)

Speaking of which, I gotta stock the fridge for the festivities tonight.
What's Vegas have to say about a Harrison "wardrome malfunction"?

People who ride bicycles, wear
shorts like that, spend time in France, and/or use AMD processors
probably spend their spare time playing weird computer games.

Something about the shorts that I've missed?:-) Ever watch
Paris-Roubaix? Now these are the *real* hard men.

No, but if it's anything like Paris-Hilton, I can believe it. ;-)

--
Keith

Yousuf Khan wrote :

Tony Hill wrote:
Yeah, in the middle of a park with NOTHING around for hundreds of
yards!

That Intel, they're really good at (make up something)...


Marketing?

While AMD's marketing department recently had to pull some radio
ads from Belgium or the Netherlands or somewhere like that,
because they were claiming that their NX-bit technology was a
substitute for anti-virus software.

well, it was not made up, it was a LIE for clicking idiots. Something
along the lines of "now you can click anythink on that porn site, AMD
will protect you from viruses and spyware".



Pozdrawiam.
--
RusH //
http://randki.o2.pl/profil.php?id_r=352019
Like ninjas, true hackers are shrouded in secrecy and mystery.
You may never know -- UNTIL IT'S TOO LATE.

On Sun, 06 Feb 2005 09:21:07 -0500, keith wrote:

On Sun, 06 Feb 2005 01:53:02 -0500, George Macdonald wrote:


Figures... all Chrysler had going for it by then was err, seats! Focus
group era? Did that correspond with what was known as the "pussification"
of American industry?

Did you drive a Chrysler of that era? A new name for the hyde of the
rare Nalga was by far the best thing they had going.

No I didn't drive any but I recall seeing the inside of a non-Montalban
(fine Corinthian....) model at a mall parking lot "show day" and marveling
at the fine detail of the Bordello look interior. Interesting that
Chrysler has revived the ~50 year-old "Hemi" name, meaning BFM (umm, big
motor), to tout its wares recently. Their "merger" with M-B is a fine
match for both.

The pricing of non-Centrino Wi-Fi wasn't much different about a year
ago... though I don't bother to look beyond Thinkpads much. Currently,
there's very little competitive offerings that I see; IBM has a very few
Thinkpads with "IBM 11b/g Wireless", which may be Cisco parts(?),

The drivers for my IBM 11/a/b/g cardbus card have a name on them I've
never heard (and don't remember). I decided to pass on the R50 they were
trying to push on me, so I don't know what the hardware in there is/was.

From what I hear the R5xs are closer to the T4xs and Axx models in feel and
"quality" than they used to be but still not quite "there". As for
NIC/Wi-Fi, I remember now that IBM used to sell some with the Cisco name
but all non-Centrinos now seem to be just labelled as "IBM 11b/g" or no
name at the lower end. Apparently there aren't really many companies left
who actually produce NICs/Wi-Fi... D-Link is one of them.

in
their top end systems but also in a couple of lower end systems. IOW if
you wanted to avoid Centrino now, it'd be kinda difficult but the price
is not much different, from what I see.

The ThinkPads I've looked (a small slice of ones on sale, perhaps) at
weren't Centrinos. They were all Pentium-Ms.

I've mainly looked at T4xs - nice systems - and they are mostly Centrino.

Uh-huh - "real men" sit around drinking beer, watching steroid-induced
monsters in heavily padded clothing trying to beat each other to death?
They go to the gym 3 times a week but don't ask them to walk two blocks
to get there.:-)

Speaking of which, I gotta stock the fridge for the festivities tonight.
What's Vegas have to say about a Harrison "wardrome malfunction"?

Keith, Harrison was the 2nd dead one. McCartney was the dim one and is a
(pious vegan) old fart now into the bargain - I wouldn't expect anything
worth looking at there. OTOH the Philadelphia rabble will be present so
the producers had better be err, vigilant, about fan-flashers with the
latest in mammary (and other forbidden bits) jewelry.:-)

People who ride bicycles, wear
shorts like that, spend time in France, and/or use AMD processors
probably spend their spare time playing weird computer games.

Something about the shorts that I've missed?:-) Ever watch
Paris-Roubaix? Now these are the *real* hard men.

No, but if it's anything like Paris-Hilton, I can believe it. ;-)

Tsk... tsk.:-)

--
Rgds, George Macdonald